02 March 2009

BELLINGHAM, Wash., USA -- SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, has announced a new agreement for access to the SPIE Digital Library of more than 270,000 research papers for the seven university members of the Irish Research eLibrary (IReL) consortium. With the European Union showing that photonics is a key economic growth area (see the Photonics21 website for more information), access to SPIE's full-text multidisciplinary database will enable Ireland's academic research community to progress light-based technology across engineering, medicine, and physics.

Access to SPIE's full-text interdisciplinary database will enable Ireland's academic research community to progress light-based technology across engineering, medicine, and physics.

Irish Universities Association Chairperson Gobnait O'Riordan described their selection of SPIE Digital Library as "recognising the rapid growth of the optics and photonics discipline and its wide-ranging impact across multiple research areas. This agreement with SPIE illustrates our goal to further the quality of academic research from Ireland."

The IReL consortium joins a number of British, German, French, and other European subscribers that recognize the importance of photonics technology in and have invested in SPIE Digital Library, including Liverpool John Moores University, Max Planck, Qinetiq and Brunel University.

Emphasising the database not just as a research resource but as a current awareness tool, Marybeth Manning, Director of Sales and Business Development for the SPIE Digital Library, said, "IReL's decision to subscribe to our content acknowledges the must-have nature of conference proceedings for researchers who need to know about the most up-to-date innovations and the latest thinking in optics and photonics. I'm delighted with the IReL agreement; this is a significant milestone as we focus on expanding in Europe and I'm looking forward to a long relationship with IReL and all of its members."

SPIE articles are among the most widely-cited literature in patents related to optics and photonics, encompassing the broadest range of technologies in those topics. With over 270,000 full-text research papers, SPIE Digital Library is the largest collection of optics and photonics information available online. Around 20,000 editor- and peer-reviewed papers are added every year to the database of journal articles and conference papers published from 1990 to the latest month. The service represents the best of the world's light-related research with over fifty percent of papers contributed by European and Asian researchers.

Along with user-defined RSS feeds and email alerts, SPIE Digital Library recently launched a redesign of its abstract page structure to offer a number of social and collaborative Web 2.0 features such as social bookmarking, code-generation for bloggers, related multimedia content and integration with browser widgets. These tools enhance the finding, storing and sharing of information for researchers.

IReL -- the Irish Research eLibrary is a nationally funded electronic research library, initially conceived to support researchers in Biotechnology and Information Technology in mid-summer 2004, and following on the success of this, expanded in 2006 to support research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. IReL currently serves the seven Irish universities, the RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland) and the Institutes of Technology. Further information can be found at http://www.irelibrary.ie.

SPIE is the international optics and photonics society, founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. Serving more than 188,000 constituents from 138 countries, the Society advances emerging technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, patent precedent, and career and professional growth. SPIE annually organizes and sponsors approximately 25 major technical forums, exhibitions, and education programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. In 2008, the Society provided $1.9 million for scholarships, grants, and other activities supporting research and education around the world. For more information, visit SPIE.org.